Knitting-machine.



PATENTED JULY 1s, 1905.

G. D. & W. C. WHTGoMBaL E. LIPPHT. KNHTING MAGHINB.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 2B. 1902.

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UNITED STATES Patented J' uly 18, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE D. WHITCOIVIB, OF GLENDORA, CALIFORNIA, AND WILLIAM C. i WHITCOMB AND ELIHU LIPPITT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS TO GEORGE D. WHITCOMB CO., ACORPORAIION OF ILLINOIS.

KNlTTlNG-IVIACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 794,963, dated July 18, 1905.

Application iiled February 28, 1902. Serial No. 96,109.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE D. WHrroouB, aresident of Glendora,county of LosAngeles, and State of California, and WILLIAM C. WHIT- ooMB and ELIHU LIPPITT, residents of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Knitting-Machines, of which the following is a specication, and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

This invention relates to improvements in knitting machines, and particularly to the yarn carrying and needle -latch controlling mechanism thereof, the object of the invention being to simplify the construction of such mechanism and to increase its eiciency.

The invention consists of the parts and combinations of parts hereinafter described and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a detail transverse vertical section of a straight-knitting machine across its throat, the yarn-carrier being shown in end elevation. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the yarncarrier, some of the parts being broken away. Figs. 3 and I- are details of the latch-guide plate. Fig. 5 is a plan of one of the latchopening plates, and Fig. 6 is a` sectional view on the line 6 6 of Fig. 5.

Only such portions of the machine are shown in the drawings as are deemed necessary to a proper understanding of the invention.

At 1() 10 are shown the usual guide-rails which flank the throat of a knitting-machine of this variety and upon which the yarn-carrier 11 reciprocates. This yarn-carrier is in the form of an oblong rectangular frame having intermediate of its ends a transverse bridge 13, through a vertical socket in which is set the thread-guide 12, which takes the form of a short tube. The bridge 13 is split through to the thread-guide socket, so as to form a lip 14, through which a screw 15 passes into the body of the bridge for clamping the lip tightly against the thread-guide. By this means the thread-guide is rendered vertically adjustable and may be securely held in any position to which it may be adjusted.

A plurality of independent latch-opening plates 16 are provided. As the machine is adapted for the use of two banks of needles and to knit when the yarn-carrier travels in either direction, four of such latch-opening plates are provided, two at each end of the yarn-carrier frame, their latch-opening points 19 being directed toward the adjacent end of the frame. These latch-opening plates are secured to the side rails of the frame 11 and converge downwardly. The attachment of each plate is by means of screws, as 17, passing through elongated sockets 18 in the plate, thereby providing for the adjustment of the latter. The under face of each latch-opening plate is concave, as shown at 20, immediately back of the latch-opening point 19, so ask to provide clearance for the hook of the needle.

A latch-guide plate 21 is secured to each side rail of the frame 11 by means of apertured lugs 22, through which suitable screws may be passed, these plates converging downwardly and being located above and spaced apart from the latch-opening plates, so as to provide clearance for the needles should the latter be deflected from their normal course and pass over the latch-opening plates, as now frequently happens by reason of the opposing strain of adjacent needles of the opposite banks. l

Near each end of each guide-plate 21 there is formed a recess 23, thereby providing an arm 24, which curves backwardly from the end of the plate, and the latter is slightly offset downwardly near its ends, so that these arms 24: lie in a plane intermediate of that of the body portion 25 of the guide-plate and that of the latch-opening plates. The length of the guide-plates 21 is such that their arms 24 project beyond the points 19 of the latchopening plates.

The latch-openers are necessary only when a needle is first brought into action. At such Atime the latch 26 of the needle 27 is closed over the hook 28 and must necessarily be thrown back in order that the thread laid down upon the needle may be engaged by the hook 28 as it recedes. The point 19 of the plate 16 passes under the latch 26, and as the .needle advances the latch is thrown backwardly to the position shown in Fig. 1 by the lower edge of the plate 16, the recess 23 affording clearance for it as it is overturned. The point 19 of the latch-opener is so disposed that it engages the needle in its forward ight before it has come to rest, and hence the overturning of the latch is due in great measure to the forward movement of the needle instead of solely to the cam action of the latch-opening plate, as is the case in machines in which the engagement does not occur until the needle has come to rest. The impact of the latchopener against the needle is therefore much less violent, and there is no tendency to bend the needle laterally. We do not entirely dispense with the cam action of the latch-opener, but facilitate it by inclining the edge of the latch-opener downwardly and baclrwardly a little from the point 19, as shown in Fig. 5.

When fiat work is being produced by two banks of needles, the strain of the adjacent needles of opposite banks against each other as they rise through the loops last formed upon them tends to curve their shafts upency of the latch to spring forward as the loop slides from its tip, and in many machines a large number of latches are necessarily opened at each advance of the needles for this reason. This-improper closing of the latches is prevented either by the latch-opener or the latch-guide plate in the structure herein shown and described.

The yarn-carrier is driven through the medium of an arm 29, carried by and reciprocating on a bar 30, and which engages in alternation a pair of stops mounted at opposite ends of the yarn-carrier frame and spaced apart a greater distance than the width of the arm 29,

thereby providingfor the usual lagging of the yarn-carrier behindthe other reciprocating parts of the machine.

As it is essential that the latch-openers engage the rising needles with great accuracy,

l stops engaged by the arm 29 adjustable.

this end these stops are in the form of a pair of screw-bolts 32, and by setting them in more or less the movement of the yarn-carrier frame may be varied relatively as to the movement of the needles. By this means the yarn may be laid down upon'the needles at any desired stage of their recession, either close within the hook or farther back upon the shaft, thereby adapting the machine for the use of either cotton. or wool yarn. This variation in yarn-delivery is also facilitated by the vertical adjust'ability of the yarn-guide tube. The wearing away of the tips of the latchopeners is also compensated for by slight adjustment of the abutment-screws 32, so as to time the engagement of these tips with the needles.

W'e claim as our invention- 1. In a knitting-machine, in combination, a yarn-carrier frame, a latch-opening plate secured thereto, and a latch-guide plate located above and spaced apart from the latch-opening plate whereby the latch is prevented from accidental closure when the needle is deflected.

attached to the frame, and downwardly-converging latch-guide plates above and spaced apart from the latch-opening plates.

4:. In a knittingmachine, in combination, a yarn-carrier frame having side rails and a plurality of latch-opening plates secured to such side rails and projecting downwardly and inwardly toward the throat of the machine, each plate having a point for entering the hooks of the needles and being so disposed as to enter such hooksy while the needles are in aight.

GEORGE D. wHITooMB. WILLIAM o. wHITooMB. ELIHU LIPPITT.

Witnesses to signature of George D. Whitcomb:

ERNEST B. OWENS, WALTER DALZELL.

Witnesses to signatures of William C. Whit- -comb and Elihu Lippitt:

W. ELLIOTT HAYES, C. C. MUDGE.

IOO 

